Ben on Film - Cinematography lost a giant when Gilbert Taylor died

Published: Wednesday, October 2, 2013 at 3:00 p.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, October 2, 2013 at 3:00 p.m.

The world barely noticed when Gilbert Taylor passed away quietly last month on the Isle of Wight at the age of 99. Yet this man was arguably one of the giants of world cinema.

Let me name some names: "Star Wars." "Dr. Strangelove." "The Omen." Taylor, who was sometimes credited as "Gil," was the cinematographer, the chief cameraman, on all of these.

Albert Hitchcock called him in to work on "Frenzy." Roman Polanski hired him for "Repulsion," the creepy 1965 psychological thriller (with a very young Catherine Deneuve). Taylor arguably helped create the Beatles' signature look, filming "A Hard Day's Night" in 1964 for Richard Lester.

He even traveled to Wilmington in 1986 to film "The Bedroom Window," the Hitchcock-esque thriller that helped jump-start the career of director Curtis Hanson ("L.A. Confidential," "The River Wild"). Taylor and Hanson had previously collaborated on "Losin' It," a 1983 teen comedy starring a new kid named Tom Cruise.

Joe Dunton, the British camera innovator who launched a film camera office in Wilmington, called Taylor "a black belt of cinematography."

"He shone as a leader of the camera department," Dunton said.

Taylor was never afraid of new technology, Dunton noted. Among other things, he can claim credit for inventing the light sabers of the "Star Wars" universe.

Dunton recalled how he and Taylor had rigged a primitive version of the video playback machine – rigging a Movieola editing machine with a TV camera – while working in Ireland in the late '60s on the Gene Wilder comedy "Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx."

On the other hand, Taylor wasn't afraid to go old-school when it worked. For "Star Wars," he brought back blue-screen technology because the front projection plates weren't ready, Dunton said. The result was effective scenes like the onset of the Imperial star cruiser at the opening of "Episode 4: A New Hope." For "The Omen," he borrowed a silk stocking from his wife to use as an improvised filter, creating the film's eerie, soft-focus effect.

Taylor was an early pioneer of hand-held camera work. To give a disturbing effect to "Dr. Strangelove" – particularly in the attack on Gen. Jack D. Ripper's air base – Taylor and director Stanley Kubrick took Ariflex cameras and filmed the scene like a documentary, as if they were combat cameramen. (During World War II, Taylor had filmed bombing raids over Germany as a member of the Royal Air Force. Later, his military camera team was among the first into Nazi concentration camps.)

The pseudo-documentary feel worked well for Taylor in "A Hard Day's Night," catching the joyous frenzy and fans mobbed the Beatles. He also used it to fine effect in "The Bedford Incident" (1965), a taut, black-and-white Cold War thriller, with an Ahab-like American destroyer captain (Richard Widmark) chasing a Soviet sub through the Arctic.

"I owe my understanding of lenses to Gilbert," Dunton said.

He recalled Taylor discussing how he'd used a 50 mm lens on Polanski's "Repulsion," and how the wider field of view gave a whole different feel to the picture.

Born in 1914 in Bushy Heath, England, Taylor had originally studied to be an architect, but at the age of 15, he apprenticed himself to William Shenton, a pioneer British cinematographer.

Taylor once told an interviewer that "Star Wars" was his proudest achievement.

"I wanted ‘Star Wars' to have clarity," he said, "because I don't think space is out of focus."